The present invention relates to a printer capable of performing printing with respect to a rolled recording sheet and equipped with a cutter mechanism for cutting the rolled recording sheet.
A printer capable of accommodating a rolled recording sheet therein has been known, performing printing on the recording sheet with a print head while feeding the recording sheet with a feeding roller. When printing is finished, the recording sheet led out from a sheet outlet of the printer is cut with a cutter disposed at the sheet outlet.
The cutter may be a manual cutter configured such that a recording sheet is pressed against a stationary blade disposed at the sheet outlet. Alternatively, the cutter may be an automatic cutter that cuts the recording sheet by actuating a movable blade with a driving force from a motor or the like.
When the rolled recording sheet is replaced, a housing section needs to be released by opening a door cover. The cutter, either the manual cutter or the automatic cutter, can be provided at a position not to be exposed to the outside while the door cover remains closed. However, when the door cover is opened, the cutter may possibly be exposed to the outside, and the cutter may be impaired. In order to solve this problem, for example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 2001-205896A discloses a mechanism provided with a movable cutter cover, by which when the door cover is opened, the cutter cover is moved to a position to cover the cutter, and when the door cover is closed, the cutter cover that has been covering the cutter is retracted so as not to interfere with a cutting operation.
For the cutter to be covered by the cutter cover so as not to be exposed to the outside, the cutter cover needs to be sufficiently large with respect to the cutter, which makes the size of the cutter cover considerably large. Hence, for the method of moving the cutter cover disclosed in the above publication, a space for the cutter cover to move and a space to install a mechanism to move the cutter cover are needed around the cutter. These spaces are thought to be considerably large.
With a printer of a medium or large size in which spaces are allowed around the cutter, the above configuration is applicable and advantageous; however, in a printer of a small size or in a case where another device is installed near the printer, space around the cutter is limited, and the method is almost inapplicable.